a move that is unlikely from a company that builds its image on kid-friendly characters and fast, cheap food. >> more than all the stories we are covering, plus analysis at our website aljazeera.com. they're genuinely require worried about the holiday purchases. usually big retailers like walmart, target, and toys "r" us are offering holiday deals closer to thanksgiving. but not this year. they started rolling out deals on friday.

there are a bunch of things that are conspiring. plummeting consumer confidence thanks to your government that shut down the government for a while, a shorter holiday season, and recent robust sales of cars and washing machines, that might take away from sales from soft line retailers, things like slows and toys this holiday season. analysts at morgan stanley forecast that holiday sales will go up, but only by 1.6%. that's two percentage points lower over the increase the year before. that would make for the slowest holiday sales growth in five years. because of that they predict the holiday season will be the most promotional one we've seen since the dark days of the recession in 2008. we'll see good deals this holiday season but that may not be enough of a good deal for the broader economy. today on twitter and facebook

we've been asking you will you spend more or less this holiday season versus last year? jesse said plan to spend half of what we spent last year. didn't budget last year. this year we set the budget in january. and and another sweet, i'm spending more this year because i finally graduated from college. contact us or leave us a comment at facebook. sales soared in a toy study called kit and caboodle. the reason why has to do with a blockbuster item called the rainbow loom. customers online and in the store will get a 20% discount there is a lot on the line because november and december usually account for 60% of annual sales. joining us now is owner jeannine dobbs. i'm holding two things in my hands, which i think are

bracelets. they're from somebody on the staff, and they were made on this loom that you were telling me about. do you happen to have this? ic oh, you have one on your hand. >> i do. is this what we're talking about now? >> is this the hot toy? >> this has been driving my business for the last eight weeks. it's called the rainbow loom. it's a simple patterning that boys, girls, junior high, high school, they all love to do it. >> it looks like the elastics used for braces. >> yes, they're really fun. >> we talked about the challenges of a business like yours, a family business, and where people are buying things online and big retailers. you told me at the end of our interview last time you said you had had a strategy, you needed

to get out in the community and get people to come to your store, what have you done since then? >> i visited my post office and i did a local drop where i made a minimal stamp on each piece and delivered 30,000 pieces to our local zip code. that drove our business, and there was a coupon 20% which ends today. that really helped us. that was something new that i had never tried before. good move on our part. >> you definitely identified what the problems were. i just talked about the fact that a lot of retailers are getting concerned, particularly soft line retailers concerned because hard line retailers have done well. and then consumer converse took a turn because of the government shutdown. did you feel any of that amongst yours customers? >> i'm feeling a little

confidence as to pricing. people are really calling us and looking for that higher ticketed item in our store and asking us what the price is. they're calling all the other retailers to get the cheapest price. much. that concerns me going forward for november and december. also, we're still getting a lot of online shoppers. will you meet the price online. in some cases i try to, and in some cases i can't. i'm concerned for november and december. it's a huge time of year for us, and every day we have to hit high numbers. >> do you care about this business with thanksgiving being closer to christmas, in other words, a shorter holiday shopping season, will this have an impact on your business? >> it does. this year we have one last week to make our numbers. which means that everything had to be out a week earlier. hour holiday merchandise we typically don't put out this early, but this year we did. we're going to do a big sale

right after thanksgiving. we have never done that before where we're trying to compete with cyber monday. we're hoping that that's going to do a lot of new business for us and they'll come back in december for last-minute items. >> are you discounting more than you would, or is it the timing of the sale change . >> the timing of the sale has changed. typically we wait until december. this year we're doing it the beginning of december, and some in october and november. we've never had to do that before. that's new for us. >> a lot of you are stuff is not manufactured nearby so you have to plan for this a long time. you would have had to buy your inventory that you're hoping to sell at christmas long before you knew about the government shutdown and interest rates and things like that. you probably have satisfying, but tell me about your

buying patterns and your staffing patterns. >> right. we hit hard in the first quarter. in february there is the new york toy show, we look at all the new deals then and all the manufacturers give us great price reductions if we order large. and then we get to pay in october and december which really helps me to fill the store early. by fourth quarter we are not buying as much. we're filling in where we have holes but not a whole lot of buying fourth quarter. really tapers off. most of our manufacturing buying is in first quarter. >> good to see you, and thanks very much. i got to say that i admire the fact that the last time we talked you knew what the problems were, you took concrete steps to try to fix it, and i have to check out one of these looms. i hope you don't mine if we keep in touch with you. you give a good pulse of what's going on. >> i appreciate it. thanks so much for having us.

>> if you are ever in carmel, indiana, go to kits and caboodles. there is hard evidence out there that the consumer is cutting corners, brian joins us from new york. brian, good to see you. i always love to talk to people like jeannine because they tell us what a guy like you gets. you go to stores and you see how behavior is changing and how retailers are doing things differently. how much of what wit you just heard makes sense to you. >> first of all, those rainbow looms look very cool. the big retailers that are becoming good at becoming quasi small retailers. what is happening target is coming out with assistance to try to move goods. jp penny is offering special promotion on social media. toys r us are offering more di

discounts in store and online. not to be the bearer of bad news, but i think small businesses are going to be hurt by the economy by not following up with a plan, and big retailers discounting more. >> the ingredients that we have described, is this what has contributed to this, the idea of the consumer confidence is suffering, and interest rates are a little higher. people have been buying cars, washing machines and refrigerators like they're going out of style. >> automobiles have been going on fire. what does that mean? the consumer has a higher bill to pay that they didn't have last year. so they'll have to cut corners. while part of this holiday story is government nonsense, it's also because incomes have not necessarily grown. median incomes are down 8.5% since 2008.

this week we had a company raising prices 2% to 10%. if your incomes are still down and you're pulling $30,000 a live, and prices are going up, you're going to cut back. >> the the emergency food stamp aid that expired yesterday, what do you expect that to do? >> reporter: i think the food stamp issue is something that is going under appreciated certainly in my world of financial services, but also in many retailers. i walked to family dollar, a national dollar store in the united states, and i'm talking to consumers. where are they going? they're going to the frozen cooler section, and leaving the store. what are they skipping? discretionary purchases.

for those families on food stamps earning $25,000, it will be very challenging for them because they're going lose $320 the entire year. that's a big impact that no one is talking about. >> i would assume that americans--the impression that i get after covered this all these years, americans do like a deal. if we constantly tell people that this is a highly promotional sales, and people will go out and think if i'm getting a deal i might shop. are the discounts deeper or are the sales just longer? >> well, the discount versus started to pick up oddly probably over the past month within many retailers, especially within department stores and especially with jc penny. to get that sale they'll need to offer more of a discount. back to school, for example, consumers waited until the last minute to buy that good. why?

they were still focusing on, do i need that today? the day of buying five pairs of jeans and sticking them in the closet, those days are over. you're still making purchased, saving up for an ipad air and a new iphone. >> interesting economy. th already, they are the biggest mutual funds in america. with combined assets of 1 trillion-dollar. chances are you own shares in them. do you know what's in them? and are they the right investment for everyone? we'll pick these giants apart and tell what you they've done for you. keep it here.

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with al jazeera america. >> throughout our reporting about campus rape we have haerdd the anguish not just about the sexual assault but that the victim was asking for it. that she was putting herself in a vulnerable position and she was s some how at fall. >> in my freshman year i was at a party and it was my second yeatime drinking in all of my le of. >> i had a lot of shots, over seven. >> and i was very, very drink. - drunk and ottawas abou it was ae two men started paying attention to me.

and they started walking me in the wrong way. i fell on the stairs and they picked me up and carried up me. i thought it's not happening to my body. and at one point one of them got on top of me and started pressing himself into me. and i remember putting my hands up and saying "no i'm a virgin please stop. "and i remember walking into the house and my mom was in the kevin enankitchen and i said, is assaulted. and she didn't have a reaction. she just walked out of the house. and i don't remember how my dad came in and i had to tell him and he sat down on the couch with me and the very first thing he said was "what were you wearing"?

i couldn't believe my father had that reaction. said that. every reaction that they had was like th that. the reality is, you were drunk. what did you wanwhat do you wano do? >> her parents did eventually come around. the whole question the alcohol use and personal responsibility is the whole problem on campus. joining us is lynn phillips is a lecture youer at the departmentf communications and she has

written on the hyper sexualzation of the young girls and the media representations of men and worked with incarcerated rapists. and emmy yoffe who has launched a passionate da debate includina column from erin ryan. i>> i would like to start with you. you lit a fire with that article. talk about college women stop getting drunk. why have you seen such a strong pacbacklash? >> this is a very difficult, painful explosive issue . >> i have a high school senior daughter that ising i is going n college next year. and you har hear stories like tt over an over.

over. and there is an overwhelming connection between sexual assault and infoxcation. intoxication you understand that people interpret it as it's your own fall. zblsm. >> i don't think that is the store. story. >> interestingly no one can take a quotation from my story that i'm blaming the women. >> i very clearly say the plame is on the perpetrator and they flood tneed to be caught and bro

justice. >> the weekend started yesterday on a lot of campuses young women will be getting incapacitated. there are class mates that seek out young women that are incapacitated. they don't have to use a knife or gun. i know three women that had classmates say hey you are drunk let me talk you home and they raped them. the young women when you lose the capacity to know what is going on around you bad people can take advantage of that. isn't it an important point that what happens when social media uncovers unheard, fascinating news stories? >> they share it on the stream. >> social media isn't an after-thought, it drives discussion across america. >> al jazeera america's social media community, on tv and online.

>> this is your outlet for those conversations. >> post, upload and interact. >> every night share undiscovered stories. determining using some sort of subjective interpretation of their policy as to whether or not your particular report was actually abusive, because if it doesn't contain language that specifically threatens you directly or is targeted towards you specifically, they may not consider it abuse. they may consider it offensive. and in that case they just recommend that you block that person. >> i don't want to minimise this, because i mean, there's some really horrible things that are on line, and it's not - it's not just twitter, what has happened through social media and the anonymity of the net is

that you see websites, hate-filled websites targetting all sorts of groups, popping up. there has been a huge number of those that exist as well. >> audiences are intelligent

>> more than 25 years ago merge express told potential users

each time that it received a new card application it would donate a dollar to restore the statue of liberty. the company donated $1.7 million to the restoration of lady liberty and proved to the corporate world that donation is great for sales. as stacey tisdale reports, technology has put twists on that trend allowing you to give money to your favorite charity without spending a dime. >> reporter: when noel was growing up her family stressed the importance of giving back. last summer life became difficult when she lost her job. >> you know spending is going out but you have nothing to refill it. >> reporter: good search.com

noel is able to donate. >> we donate a penny a search. >> reporter: with 15 million visitors to its site. the company has raised more than 1.2 billion charitable transactions on its site. good search is one of thousands of companies giving without you giving nine charities for autism speak, habitat humanity, and more than a thousand people have raised $50,000 using this site. every time you redeem a coupon with coupon for change, the organization has provided more than 1.3 million meals. redeeming coupons on good shop.com and major retailers including amazon dot come .

>> people want to do good. they want to give back, but in this economy they don't have money. they often don't have time, and doing good is not convenient. we take your simple daily actions and give you ways to give back just the way you lead your life. >> reporter: why would some of the biggest corporations in the world partner with companies like this in order to raise money for charity? experts say it can boost their bottom lines. >> they see evidence that they'll get more people to buy their product. >> reporter: survey by cohen communication found 89% of participants would be likely to switch from one brand to another when associated with a good cause. but first they have to have your cause a good look. >> you need to look at evidence of results, meaning the mission. >> reporter: the mission of heifer international made noel's charity of choice.

>> an organization dedicated to ending poverty and hunger through the model if you give a man a fish he eats for a day. if you teach a man to fish he'll eat for a lifetime. >> reporter: giving and teaching one click at a time. stacey tisdale, al jazeera new york. >> reporter: americans are the most charitable people in the world giving $316 billion , $300 billion of that comes from individuals, gifts, and charitable found days. now why am i carrying a box? the thought of retailers and investors. in tonight's show we told but the worries that many retailers have over their bottom line this holiday shopping season. i don't know if you've seen this, a container store. have you been there? one successful retailer who literally thinks outside of the box or maybe it thinks inside the box. on friday the company launched it's ipo.

by market close the stock had doubled to $35 a share. this year has seen other big retail stock debuts . sound great but can these ipo sustain their initial pop over the longer run? shouts has gained some money since it's ipo. potbelly has come down. despite three straight years of losses in the run up to it, obviously investors see future growth potential, but it will have to prove it's worth in the coming months and years. ipos are back in the spotlight and all eyes will turn to twitter stock debut as early as next week. that's our show for tonight. monday i'll give you the solution to an often hidden problem, that's homelessness. this is "real money." i'm ali velshi.

>> this is al jazeera. >> hello and welcome to the news hour. our top story for the next 60 monies. the pakistani taliban names a new leader hours after a suspected you ha u.s. drone stre killed it's former commander. >> plus,in, willing to fight unl the last bullet. an ex-clue sufficient report on the arabs that want independence from mali. >> at lam losng